The present invention relates generally to ink printers, the ink used in such ink printers, and the apparatus and method for feeding the ink into the printer.
Solid ink or phase change ink printers conventionally receive ink in a solid form and convert the ink to a liquid form for jetting onto a receiving medium. The printer receives the solid ink either as pellets or as ink sticks in a feed channel. With solid ink sticks, the solid ink sticks are either gravity fed or spring loaded through the feed channel toward a heater plate. The heater plate melts the solid ink into its liquid form. In a printer that receives solid ink sticks, the sticks are either gravity fed or spring loaded into a feed channel and pressed against a heater plate to melt the solid ink into its liquid form. U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,402 for a Solid Ink Feed System, issued Mar. 31, 1998 to Rousseau et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,903 for an Ink Feed System, issued Jan. 19, 1999 to Crawford et al. describe exemplary systems for delivering solid ink sticks into a phase change ink printer.
An ink stick for use in a solid ink feed system of a phase change ink jet printer includes at least first and second three dimensional ink stick body portions. Each ink stick body portion includes a perimeter section that is. substantially the same as a corresponding section of a keyed insertion opening in the solid ink feed system. Each ink stick body portion also includes., a joint perimeter section that is the complement of the joint perimeter section of the other ink stick body portion, so that the first and second ink stick body portions fit together.
A method of inserting an ink stick into a solid ink feed systems of a phase change ink jet printer includes providing first and second ink stick portions, each of which has a perimeter including a joint perimeter segment. The first and second ink stick portions are placed adjacent one another so that the joint perimeter segments of the two ink stick portions abut one another. The first and second ink stick portions are then inserted through an insertion opening in the solid ink feed system.